Wallace: Reid faces critical board and thorny issues

Less than two years on the job Sarasota County Administrator Randall Reid finds himself on the political hotseat

Less than two years on the job — and facing his next performance review in just three months — Sarasota County Administrator Randall Reid finds himself on the political hotseat with his bosses.

Two county commissioners are publicly faulting Reid for poor communication with them, highlighted by last week's dust-up over the resignation of a top finance officer he previously worked with in Alachua County, where Reid was administrator before being hired by Sarasota County.

Commissioners also have faulted Reid for what they say are reports of widespread employee morale issues.

But perhaps most significant for Reid politically is his handling of the start of a major land-use debate over land east of Interstate 75 and the future of building what has become known as "Lakewood Ranch South" in Sarasota County.

Even though Commissioner Joe Barbetta said he warned Reid and his staff not to propose bringing in outside academic consultants to help revise a key portion of the county's land-use plan, called 2050, the county administrator put it forward anyway at a public meeting on July 9. Barbetta said waiting for outside academics would only slow the building of Lakewood Ranch South, which developer Rex Jensen has pushed for nearly a decade.

"I told the staff not to bring it forward," Barbetta said. "Don't waste time on this. I told Reid the same thing."

Barbetta said Reid crossed a line from being an administrator into policymaking by forcing commissioners to vote on his plan. They rejected it by a 4-1 vote.

"We don't need an administrator who thinks he is a sixth commissioner," Barbetta said.

A stark contrast

The growing dissatisfaction with Reid stands in stark contrast to his hiring.

In January 2012, commissioners hailed his arrival as a key move to regain the public's trust after a 2011 purchasing scandal that cost 14 employees their jobs, including the former county administrator, Jim Ley.

As recently as last March they gave Reid largely positive reviews for his first year on the job.

But now, three of the four commissioners who hired Reid have expressed concerns. Board members are weighing how to respond to his next annual performance review, set for November.

Barbetta said he knows switching administrators again would be disruptive and wants to avoid that. But he said the commissioners are reaching a pivotal point with Reid heading into this fall.

Reid said he's just trying to do his job. He acknowledged he may have rubbed some people the wrong way because of high-profile public policy issues. He noted the 2050 plan debate that started earlier this summer as one example, but did not elaborate.

Reid's supporters defend him. Attorney Dan Lobeck, a frequent critic of overdevelopment, said Reid has been a "breath of fresh air" who isn't controlled by the development community. Lobeck said he fears commissioners are building a case against Reid because he's not giving in to the development community.

The tensions with the board came to light last week when Commissioner Christine Robinson, an attorney, released the findings of her investigation into the resignation of the top county finance official. Robinson said Reid initially told her that Suzanne L. Gable resigned on July 8 for family reasons and to work on her CPA training. Commissioners thought Gable already was a certified public accountant.

Robinson said she found out Reid and his staff had confronted Gable about not being a licensed CPA since 2005, which may have prompted her resignation this month. Gable, in an interview last week, said she resigned purely for family reasons and said the CPA issue had nothing to do with it.

Robinson said she was "disappointed" that Reid's communication with commissioners "hasn't improved."

"I'm wondering what else I don't know," she said.

Robinson said the issue is more than whether Gable was a CPA, but why she wasn't told more about what was going on.

Besides Robinson and Barbetta on the five-person board, Commission Chairwoman Carolyn Mason has also had issues with Reid. During Reid's performance review session in March, Mason had some of the most pointed criticism of him, giving Reid the lowest marks of any of board members and citing communication issues.

Like Robinson, Mason said when Reid told her about Gable's departure, he did not mention anything about the CPA licensure — which had been a key factor in her hiring. Days after Gable resigned, Mason demanded copies of Gable's personnel file.

Mason said before the latest issues about Gable, she thought communication with Reid was getting better.

Reid said he thought Gable still had her CPA license and was misled himself. The issue will be discussed when commissioners next meet in late August.

2050 communication

Communication issues also were a factor in the 2050 land-use discussions.

Reid and his staff proposed bringing in an academic expert from Florida State University to review the county's rules for allowing development east of I-75 to give the public confidence that the county wasn't favoring development groups.

The academic consultant would look at a section of the 2050 land-use plan requiring that growth not overload existing schools, roads and utilities — something government staff calls fiscal neutrality.

After Barbetta publicly blasted the idea during the meeting, Robinson made a motion to change the recommendation to assure the outside expert looking at the rules would have "development project experience" to understand how the county rules affect development.

Only Commissioner Nora Patterson voted against Robinson's motion.

Barbetta said Reid's handling of questions about Gable's firing will go a long way toward determining his future. If there is any hint that commissioners were lied to, he said, it might be time "cut our losses."

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